"Most blessed of the patriarchs" : Thomas Jefferson and the empire of the imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed(
Book
)8
editions published
between
2016
and
2017
in
English
and held by
1,314 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Thomas Jefferson is often portrayed as a hopelessly enigmatic figure -- a riddle -- a man so riven with contradictions that
he is almost impossible to know. Lauded as the most articulate voice of American freedom and equality, even as he held people
-- including his own family -- in bondage, Jefferson is variably described as a hypocrite, an atheist, or a simple-minded
proponent of limited government who expected all Americans to be farmers forever. Now, Annette Gordon-Reed teams up with America's
leading Jefferson scholar, Peter S. Onuf, to present a character study that dispels the many clichés that have accrued over
the years about our third president. Challenging the widely prevalent belief that Jefferson remains so opaque as to be unknowable,
the authors create a portrait of Jefferson, as he might have painted himself, one "comprised of equal parts sun and shadow."
Tracing Jefferson's philosophical development from youth to old age, the authors explore what they call the "empire" of Jefferson's
imagination -- an expansive state of mind born of his origins in a slave society, his intellectual influences, and the vaulting
ambition that propelled him into public life as a modern avatar of the Enlightenment who, at the same time, likened himself
to a figure of old -- "the most blessed of the patriarchs." Indeed, Jefferson saw himself as a "patriarch," not just to his
country and mountain-like home at Monticello but also to his family, the white half that he loved so publicly, as well as
to the black side that he claimed to love, a contradiction of extraordinary historical magnitude

Jeffersonian legacies(
Book
)17
editions published
between
1993
and
1994
in
English
and held by
1,008 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Jefferson's empire : the language of American nationhood by Peter S Onuf(
Book
)2
editions published
between
2000
and
2001
in
English
and held by
801 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Thomas Jefferson believed that the American revolution was a transformative moment in the history of political civilization.
He hoped that his own efforts as a founding statesman and theorist would help construct a progressive and enlightened order
for the new American nation that would be a model and inspiration for the world. Peter S. Onuf's new book traces Jefferson's
vision of the American future to its roots in his idealized notions of nationhood and empire

The origins of the federal republic : jurisdictional controversies in the United States, 1775-1787 by Peter S Onuf(
Book
)17
editions published
between
1983
and
2010
in
English
and held by
666 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Historians have emphasized the founding fathers' statesmanship and vision in the development of a more powerful union under
the federal constitution. In The Origins of the Federal Republic, Peter S. Onuf clarifies the founders' achievement by demonstrating
with case studies of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia that territorial confrontations among the former colonies
played a crucial role in shaping early concepts of statehood and union and provided the true basis of the American federalist
system

Empire and nation : the American Revolution in the Atlantic world by Eliga H Gould(
Book
)9
editions published
between
2005
and
2015
in
English
and held by
569 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"How did events and ideas from elsewhere in the British Empire influence political developments in the thirteen mainland American
colonies? What was the effect of the American Revolution on the wider Atlantic world? In Empire and Nation, leading historians
reconsider that upheaval as a transnational event, with many sources and momentous implications for Ireland, Africa, the West
Indies, Canada, and Britain itself."--Jacket

Jeffersonian America by Peter S Onuf(
Book
)8
editions published
between
2001
and
2002
in
English
and held by
454 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"The volume lays out the conflict between Jeffersonian Republicans and their Federalist opponents who were accused of war-mongering,
and exposes the irony of one of Jefferson's friends, President James Madison, leading the United States into the War of 1812,
America's second war for independence. Jeffersonian America helps students, scholars, and general readers understand some
of the fundamental tensions and paradoxes that have shaped the subsequent course of American history."--Jacket

Federal union, modern world : the law of nations in an age of revolutions, 1776-1814 by Peter S Onuf(
Book
)10
editions published
between
1993
and
1997
in
English
and held by
386 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In this thought-provoking analysis of international relations, the Onufs deepen our understanding of the ideas that forged
the law of nations in a world of revolutions. Taking a time of extraordinary change as its frame of reference, Federal Union,
Modern World relates the emergence of the modern concept of state-societies to the remarkable experiments in constitution-making
in the United States. It shows how efforts to model a federal union in America influenced the broader relations of European
nation-states. Relying on ancient and early modern sources prominent in the minds of the Founders, the authors demonstrate
how the idea of a federal union was applied to the nations of the world. This profound paradigm shift in international relations
divorced the law of nations from naturalism and grafted it onto modern ideas of liberalism. The formation of the United States
as a federation, argue the Onufs, "expressed Enlightenment impulses ... more fully than any contemporaneous developments in
Europe." Furthermore, as the Founders attempted to secure a tenable position for their creation, they inspired a shift in
international relations theory from natural legal doctrine to the positive law of states. This book is a contribution to the
new history of "conceptual change," drawing selectively on the history of diplomacy, political theory, and legal doctrine
to identify and relate some important themes in the emergence of the modern world. This relevant and timely study of international
union and disunion informs us as much about the decades of revolution as it does about the context of international relations
and federalism in our own time

The mind of Thomas Jefferson by Peter S Onuf(
Book
)11
editions published
between
2007
and
2012
in
English
and held by
377 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In The Mind of Thomas Jefferson, one of the foremost historians of Jefferson and his time, Peter S. Onuf, offers a collection
of essays that seeks to historicize one of our nation's founding fathers. Challenging current attempts to appropriate Jefferson
to serve all manner of contemporary political agendas, Onuf argues that historians must look at Jefferson's language and life
within the context of his own place and time. In this effort to restore Jefferson to his own world, Onuf reconnects that world
to ours, providing a fresh look at the distinction between private and public aspects of his character that Jefferson himself
took such pains to cultivate. Breaking through Jefferson's alleged opacity as a person by collapsing the contemporary interpretive
frameworks often used to diagnose his psychological and moral states, Onuf raises new questions about what was on Jefferson's
mind as he looked toward an uncertain future. Particularly striking is his argument that Jefferson's character as a moralist
is nowhere more evident, ironically, than in his engagement with the institution of slavery. At once reinvigorating the tension
between past and present and offering a new way to view our connection to one of our nation's founders, The Mind of Thomas
Jefferson helps redefine both Jefferson and his time and American nationhood

State and citizen : British America and the early United States by Peter Thompson(
Book
)10
editions published
between
2013
and
2014
in
English and Undetermined
and held by
184 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Pointing the way to a new history of the transformation of British subjects into American citizens, State and Citizen challenges
the presumption that the early American state was weak by exploring the changing legal and political meaning of citizenship.
The volume's distinguished contributors cast new light on the shift from subjecthood to citizenship during the American Revolution
by showing that the federal state played a much greater part than is commonly supposed. Going beyond master narratives - celebratory
or revisionist - that center on founding principles, the contributors argue that geopolitical realities and the federal state
were at the center of early American political development. The volume's editors, Peter Thompson and Peter S. Onuf, bring
together political science and historical methodologies to demonstrate that citizenship was a political as well as a legal
concept. The American state, this collection argues, was formed and evolved in a more dialectical relationship between citizens
and government authority than is generally acknowledged. Suggesting points of comparison between an American narrative of
state development - previously thought to be exceptional - and those of Europe and Latin America, the contributors break fresh
ground by investigating citizenship in its historical context rather than by reference only to its capacity to confer privileges.
-- Publisher's website

The Louisiana Purchase and American expansion, 1803-1898 by Sanford Levinson(
Book
)3
editions published
in
2005
in
English
and held by
1 WorldCat member
library
worldwide
In this long overdue collection, Sanford Levinson and Bartholomew Sparrow bring together noted scholars in American history,
constitutional law, and political science to examine the role that the Louisiana Purchase played in shaping both the expansionist
policies of the nineteenth century and critical interpretations of the Constitution. As the nation continued to expand westward
and into the Pacific and Caribbean, critical social, political, and constitutional questions would arise that would greatly
test American resolve and the principles on which it was based.</spa